Blurry action pictures!

If you are seeing motion blur in your photos, the shutter speed may be too long. Are you shooting in very low light? Are you moving the camera while taking these shots?
Try switching the camera to shutter-priority (Tv) mode, and using the dial to choose a shutter speed like 1/100 or 1/250. If your shots are too dark unless you use something like 1/40 or 1/30 (or lower), then you'd need to use flash.

Carmen,
This is likely. Action shots require a fast shutter speed which in turns requires more light. Aside from a very expensive lens, about the only thing you can do is try to increase the light, slow the shutter speed, and increase your ISO rating to 1600.

Thank you.

Tracking a subject is one thing but, taking an action picture is something else altogether. You will need to set the ISO to a higher number to force the shutter to set a faster speed stop the action.

you should set it to a high shutter speed and f/stop also set your pictures to a RAW setting, if that made no sences let me know, and i'll say it abit more simple :)

The sport setting uses a faster shutter speed to stop motion. However, if you have the ISO set to a low number and try to take action shots in dim light, they will be blurry. Either use auto ISO or use a higher number such as 400 or 800.

That's a big lens and for sports photography you are going to need a lot of light to ensure you can use a fast shutter speed to capture the action. Sports mode may do too much for you and you might want to try switching to a more manual mode. Try switching to Tv mode which gives shutter speed priority. Set the shutter speed to something around 1/150 or higher (1/200) which should be fast enough to freeze the action. Make sure the ISO is set to 200 or 400 for best results and see how you get on. This should stop any action based blur which would leave you with focus problems if the pictures are still blurry. Check out http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/canoneos450d for info on what this camera can really do for you

need to be aware of lighting conditions as well. if the lighting conditions are low then the shutter will slow to compensate

maybe check the shutter speed setting.

Well, Sports Mode is a fully automated mode, which I believe tries to balance the exposure toward faster shutter speeds. An over all dark photo indicates an underexposure. You can adjust for underexposure by dialing in a 1/2 stop or so on your exposure compensation dial.

However, dark AND blurry indicates that you just didn't have enough light. The first thing you want, for that same shooting situation, is some faster film. Go up at least an f-stop or two (eg, if you're shooting with ISO 100 film, try ISO 400).

Pay attention to the shutter speed the camera is setting. If you're stilling still, photographing action, you'll want a pretty fast shutter speed, or you WILL get blurring. I'd recommend at least 1/250th second, faster still if you're trying to freeze motion.

A more advanced technique is to pan with your subject. Follow the subject with the camera, and use a medium to medium fast shutter speed (1/60th-1/250th). You will get some blurring, but if you learn this well, your subject will be pretty clear, and the background will blur... thus including the suggestion of speed in the final photo, rather than something that looks frozen. That can deliver a much more satisfying shot.

I have used Canons for years, but I avoid all of the those special modes, like sports modes. They're really trying to deliver some help, but these are techniques you should learn in any basic photography course.

If you set the camera to Av mode, you can choose the widest aperture available for that lens, which will always get you the fastest possible shutter speed -- thus, the least chance of blurring. If you still blur, you need more light, a lower f-stop number, or faster film.. those are the only cures.